The meaning of hate and love
by Little-Firestar84
Summary: Don is forced to work with the woman who broke his heart years ago, but sometimes things get complicated.And if behind every person there's a story, behind every action there's a reason. Oneshot...read and review,please!


Don't own anything, CBS did. i like only play with them. Oneshot.Lovestory, DonOc. Please don't be too rude.

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"God, how did we end this way?" she asked him. Catherine Edison and Don Eppes, friends and "colleagues". Him, an F.B.I. agent, her, a police agent of the L.A.P.D., two people in troubles, because they were locked in a storage room in a warehouse that was burning. 

"You mean the fact that we're gonna die or the fact we are hating and avoiding each other from years?" she wasn't sure: was he serious or was he trying to make her better…or worse?

" honestly? – she asked him while trying again to force the entrance. She tossed, the air was becoming irrespirable. – I dunno. Probably both."

He looked at her again, at her brownish eyes and hairs. He remembered how he met her, and when.

"Do you wonna remember?" he asked her joking. She looked at him with incredulity. How could him make humour in such a moment? "Hey, you asked !"

"I'm sure if I close my eyes I will wake up in my bed with my daughter and son who try to put me outside the bed asking me to cook them something."

"Now you're the hilarious one - He was still smiling. Damn. That odious smile. She fall for him, once. And she escaped from him because she was kept in an important (or so she thought) relationship. Yeah, It was true, she avoided him. But she didn't hate him. It was something impossible. Outside discussion. Hate Don? No way! She was probably still in love with him! – well, since we are blocked here, we can try to remember the past while we expect the reinforcements. Hoping they will arrive."

_Miami.6 years before._

Horatio Kane was discussed the cases with his group of agent. Catherine--- Kat as her friends called her--- was giving him some news about her one; she was investigating upon a case of robbery.

"'scuse me, I'm looking for Horatio Kane and his squad". A brown haired man in his thirties went in their direction. "F.B.I., Special Agent Don Eppes."

"I'm Horatio Kane. What do you want from me?"

"We know you are investigating upon a case of robbery that include as suspects Chad Michaels and David Murray. We are investigating on them, too, because we think they used the money of the robberies to finance a terrorist group. So, from now the case is ours."

"Ehy! They are months we are investigating on this case, you can't come here and take _my_ case!" Don looked at the fiery brownish girl who was speaking with him. She wasn't tall, but she was surely nice. She wasn't sexy… she was something different, nice. The difference? He didn't know.

"Kat, be quiet please. We can ménage this. I'm sure Agent Eppes will be happy to work with us. Agent Eppes – he paused – this is Catherine Edison, as you have understood, she is working on…well, on our case. If you need something, ask her. And Kat, please… - he whispered in her hear – be cooperative. Doesn't matter who solved the case. Those men killed already 5 people during their robberies, and if it involves terrorism… you know what I mean, right?" She nodded, while he went to his other agents. Kat looked at the young men in front of her- surely he was attractive and--- _What do you think girl? You are fiancée! You can't… _

"Well – she told him with crossed arms – it seems I'm at your order, Agent Eppes."

"Yeah, It looks like we will spend a lot of time together, Agent Edison. By the way, call me Don. And please…I don't want to put you out from your case. I think we can work on this case… _together_." She liked the way he underlined the word "together": she thought it will be a pleasure work with him.

**_Miami. 3 months later._**

"you're the most arrogant, stubborn, vane man I ever met!"

"Listen who's speaking! You're not able to work with other being different from you!"

"Don't you dare to speak with me this way!, Agent Eppes!"

"If it wasn't for you…"

"me? It's your fault! I told you to wait and you didn't!"

"No! you told me the warrant will arrive soon there are no problems! You didn't tell me the judge will never sight that damn warrant!"

"So now it's my fault if your evidences aren't accepted by the court!"

"Yes, it is!"

"YOU..YOU…YOU…I HATE YOU!"

"ME TOO!" He screamed as she went out from the room shouting the door behind her shoulders. She was driving him crazy. Not only she was totally unable to cooperate… notwithstanding her boss' orders, but…well, Don was starting to think that he was starting to feel something for that girl. He followed her outside the Dept where she went to smoke a cigarette. she was propped at her car, thinking to everything.

"You all right?" he asked her. "you know, it's dangerous."

"you here to ask pardon?"

"No, well, not totally. I think maybe can be a little my fault. Just a little, sure but…sorry, it's _also _my fault."

She smiled at him. He loved the way she did it. He was definitely in love with her. "You know, I like the way you underlined some words like "together","us","also"… it make me feel like you respect my work and want collaborate. Something Federals and Police don't make often."

"it's not my way. And then, I like work…and _also _– he underlined also again, smiling and joking – argue with you."

She smiled and laughed. Less than 15 second later, her cell rang.

"Edison, yeah? Hey, what's up darling? You all right? Yeah,yeah…. I understand… I'll arrive asap…yeah, bye!"

"problems?" he asked. She looked upset.

"My daughter asked me to go to take her because there aren't some profs. Can you give me an hour or so?"

he looked strange. He was strange. Like something had deranged him.

"You all right, don? You seem…a bit strange. Are you sure you don't have flu?"

"daughter?" it was like he wasn't speaking, only thinking at loud voice.

"Yeah, a daughter… but I have a son, too. Didn't I mention them to you?"

"no, you didn't."

She opened her car and took a package from the inside. It was an envelope… one of the photographers. She took some photos from the inside. "Here they are – she said – he is Thomas Jonathan… T.J. – she said indicating a one year old boy (it was a birthday photo: his birthday photo)- and she is Isabelle, my older daughter. – the girl was quite big, something like 10,11 years old. And he knew Kat was only 27! – she is 11 now. I'm so proud of her. she is very strong. more than me. When her father…when her step-father… died I was pregnant of T.J. she helped me a lot during these years."

"I'm sorry."

He looked at the photos. In almost everyone there was a man, older than him. He was almost ever embracing her. "He is George Fridley. He is… he is my boyfriend. We live together." _I don't need to give him explanations! Why am I doing this? _"Sorry, must go. See you later."

_**Miami,2 years later.**_

"Guess who's back?" Kat looked at her shoulders at then saw who was speaking with her. A smile crossed her face.

"Hey Don, you must be in love with Miami. It's the… what, forth time? You came here for a case!"

_I'm not in love with the city, but with you._ "My boss send me because he knows I know the local teams. You know who's working on a certain Blossom case?"

"The girl raped and murdered, you mean? - he nodded – my boss and 2 colleagues. Tim Speedle and Erik Delco."

"Nothing interesting on your front?"

"I'm working on a drug traffic case. Ehy, I'm late, I have a search warrant and I must go… see you later?"

"Sure, I'll call you later. Bye."

**_Miami, some days later.Hellfire club._**

"I heard you did great on your case. Your boss is very proud of you." He told her drinking his cold blond beer.

"You believe? – she asked him. – I think he tells the same about all his men. listen to him who make us his compliments doesn't make me feel excited."

Don and Kat were both celebrating their victories upon their respective cases. They were both in casual clothes: she was wearing a black top with long jeans with high heeled sandals; Don had a black t-shirt, jeans and gym shoes. He was very different from the manta work, and she liked it.

"How's with George?" he asked her. He didn't did it for a reason. It come like from nowhere.

"Last month he proposed me." She told it uncertainly. She wasn't sure about how or what tell him. She was sure about nothing.

"last week we spoke and you didn't tell me about that." He became cold and distant. But he was right, she thought.

"I know… I'm sorry, but I didn't know how tell you…"

"Have you decided the date yet?"

"Please, Don, you don't need to be polite. If you don't want to speak about it… or if you don't want to speak with me…it's ok. Really."

"All right. maybe it's better if I leave." He took his jacket from the chair and he literally run away from the pub. She paid the bill and then followed him. It was a raining day. A tempest was coming. A not only a meteorological one.

"Don, please! Speak with me! Tell me something!" she cried in the air.

"it seemed to me you told me if I didn't want to speak with you was fine." she looked in his eyes and she knew what she saw. Because it was the same for her.

"Well, I lied! It's not fine if you don't want to tell me what's wrong! Tell me what happens!"

"it happens that I love you!" he shouted at her, and then, less than 5 seconds later, he run in her direction, took her and kissed her passionately, fiercely and without tell her a single word. He thought it was the right thing to do, to kiss her, he hoped the kissing was helping her to understand who she was in love with…that she was in love _with him!_ He was wrong, because she refused him….and the kiss…and terrorized escaped. From that day, he refused all her calls as well she refused the ones he did.

_**L.A.,Now.**_

"You know Don, it was a rhetoric question. I know how we end this way… I mean our…sort of relationship."

"Really? Look, I'm so stupid I didn't understand. – he told her – so, let's see how it happened we're gonna die!"

_**L.A. A week before.**_

"Ehi bro', you all right?"

Charlie Eppes, Don's little brother and less then 30 years old Nobel prize winner, entered into his brother's office. Don was reading some files about a case they were called into.

"Just too much work. And too little solutions. And the police asked our help to resolve a case… I was just going to met the detectives involved."

"Some for me? You know, yesterday I was looking to those old cases you gave me, and there are no maths applications for them. At least, not maths applications known. Maybe a day someone will discover something useful, but today…"

"yeah, yeah, I know… the limit is not in maths but in the mathematician. – the two young men smiled together – back to the focus… I will not know what you will can do for me until I will not met the detectives. So, came back home and stay a bit with dad. You know, he really misses you those day. You two stay in the same house but you can't find a moment to stay together…"

"well, it's true. With the lessons, Larry, Amina, you and all the other things I'm doing now, I've no time for him. You know? I go home and ask him to join me on the green! He must teach me to play golf in a decent way!"

David Sinclaire knocked at his door and immediately after he entered into the small, full, white and Spartan office. "There's the police detective you were expecting. What do I do?"

"tell him to come here. I want to speak with him just a bit about the bombers."

"bombers? Is the case about the bombs exploded all around in L.A.? Maybe I can help, track the next point or the point of origin…"

"Yeah, I known that you can, Charlie, but I have no details now, and I want to be secret we're working on this case. When I'll have more details, I'll tell you."

"Her-"David told them.

"What?" Don asked.

"The detective. It's not a man…it's a woman. Detective --- David told her – come here."

As David and Charlie walked away, a woman in her thirties entered- and he was shocked when he recognised her. Her scent. Her accent. Her face. But she wasn't smiling. He loved her smile.

"Hi Don… nice to meet you again. After all these years."

He remained blocked for a while, then he went at the door at, with the mouth opened but speechless, he closed it. Still speechless, he indicated her a chair. She accepted, but, like him, she felt uncomfortable. He went again behind his desk. He took a glass of water, he looked at her, he drunk again and again he looked at her. It was like he didn't believe in what he was seeing.

"I didn't remember I did this effect to you." She said, trying to speak about something.

"what…what do you do here?" he finally asked her.

"What do you think? I'm the detective who is investigating on the bombs"

"But if you are the detective I was expecting… it means you work and live in L.A…." it was her turn to remain speechless.

"Well… doesn't matter. Let's speak about the case…"

**_Eppes' house. That evening._**

"Dad! Charlie! Where are you?" Don asked entering in his family house. He heard his brother's voice come from the garage where he was working on some millennium problem. "Don I'm here! I arrive immediately! – less than 1 minute later, the genius arrived – hey bro', what do you need?"

"Charlie, she is detective…ehm… detective Edison. She is the detective who is investigating upon the bombs. She knows better than me the situation, so, while I'll work to find something more, she will give you all the details to work on. I'm sure you will work good together." Finished the discourse, Don left as cold as an iceberg. And – Charlie noticed – very angry.

"Don…wait!" But he didn't answer, because he was still gone. "Well, I think we can start to work on something…did Don explain you how I work and what I do?"

"He told me only I was going to work with you."

"Well, follow me, I'll explain you everything…"

_**some hours later.**_

"I think I'm coming to a solution…the answer is somewhere here, in the equation…"

"if you told that…" she told him controlling the data on her computer. She looked at him tired and stressed.

"You all right?"

"nothing. It's only that I worked on this case for months and now here I am, taking orders from an F.B.I. agent who hates me and with his genial brother."

"Don doesn't hate you. He is a bit cold, sure, but he didn't hate you. He respects the work of agents… both of police and federals."

"He hate me. As a person, not as a police detective."

"Don't be crazy, detective Edison, he neither knows….you. wait a moment…Catherine Edison as in Kat Edison? – she nodded – you're the one who broke his heart and married an other man?"

"I broke with my fiancé thanks to your brother. George thought I had a story with him. He broke with me a week before the wedding. And the truth it's that it was true, also if our relationship was… well, we can tell it a platonic relationship. Also if it seems Don didn't agree, at the end."

"Yaeh, I heard something. Not all, because we have never been too close until I started to cooperated with him. But I heard something."

"listen…can we go back to the case? I start to feel uncomfortable…"

" Yeah, well, I was telling you…"

_**2 days later, evening.**_

"Charlie, Dad, I'm here!" Don shouted from the door. He took out his jacket and went in the kitchen, where he saw his dad, brother and Amina, his brother's former student and now girlfriend.

"Ehi, son, you look tired. Stay here for the night?" his dad asked.

"Well, if you don't mind. I'm too tired to go home ,_my home, _so if you really don't mind I'll take a shower, eat something and then I'll try to sleep."

After dinner, Don helped his dad with the dishes and table. They talked about the more and the less, and then they remained in silent for a while. It was Alain who started to talk again. To talk about something he felt important.

"You know, you're always welcome here. For what concerns me, you can even came back here…I mean, to stay with us."

"Dad… I'm no more a child, I'm an adult. I'm 35! I need a place to stay on my own, and then you are not alone. You've Charlie, and you go out with women. It's better for us all if the things don't change."

Alain remained again in silence. Don understood something was going between them, but he wasn't able to understand exactly _what_ was going on. So, he asked.

"Dad… what's up?"

"Yesterday… when I arrived at home, I went in the garage to see what your brother was doing. And there was this girl… I mean woman… Catherine Edison. And I began to wonder if she was the same Catherine Edison you were in love with. – Don remained in silence – I think I was right. She is the same Catherine."

"Yeah… she is my Kat. Or at least…she was."

"do you still fell something for her?"

"I don't know. I mean, it's years I don't see her… and then, probably now she is married with that George guy…"

"Why don't you try to speak with her? Stop to avoid and treat her bad!"

"Dad,listen…"

"No, Don, listen you to me. Your mother made me promise to see other women. She made me promise to go on. She pushed me. And now I'm pushed you."

"Dad… she is probably married. Don't you remember why I decided to see her no more?"

"Charlie told me she broke with her fiancé. For your fault."

"Dad!"

**_The day after. Afternoon._**

"Ehy bro'!" Charlie entered in his brother's office followed by Kat and Amina with some papers in hands and a lot of maps. "I've got beautiful news for you!"

"You found where they are!"

"Well – he said showing them the maps – not exactly. I found, thanks to Dad and detective Edison, the points where they will probably put the next bombs…"

"points? You used the plural?"

"Well, yes, but listen, I created a new equations, mixing the one I used on that case of raping and killing … our first case together… and the one I used when the radioactive truck was stolen… For my analysis, they will hit in one of these points…"

"God Charlie… they are 3 focal points, each one not too small… can't you do anything else."

"not now, not with only these dates. I'm sorry."

"Can't you give him more help, please?" he asked Kat. He treated her liken it was her fault. Like she wasn't doing her best.

"Ehy, listen to my Don, I did all in my power to find the bombers… I even accepted to work and support you, but now, mister, you have surpassed the limits! We will work on this case and we will work together!"

"That's good! David, take some agents and go here! Megan, you here, Albertson and Mitchell… here. We will go here!"

"Fine!" she said him coldly and angrily.

"Seen? We're working _together_, like the dear, old times. You happy?"

"Yeah, sure, don't you see how happy I am?"

_**That day. Afternoon.**_

"Nothing. How can it be possible? There must be something!" Don said in his office. Before him there was Kat, who was looking at some maps Charlie gave her…

"Listen… I was thinking… what id your brother was wrong?"

"Charlie is never wrong. Well, he was only once that I remembered."

"Sure, but this thing involved not only numbers, but people. _Crazy people._ I'm a biologist, I know the maths thing. But I think also these people are not an open book."

"What do you mean?"

"We search for them everywhere Charlie told us. And what did we found? Zero. So, I was thinking that maybe we could search something similar he didn't take in consideration…"

"have you already found something?"

"Yes, there's a zone full of warehouses. I think our criminal syndicate can hit somewhere here next time" she said him evidencing with a red pen a zone limitrophe of the city.

"Well… it's not too much but we must start from something."

"Yeah, I think this will be a good point of start." She told him smiling.

"Yeah, I think it, too. Let's go and see what we can find."

And so they did. They went where she believed the bombers were and searched for them. At the end, they fond them in a small and isolated building… a small warehouse. They called immediately for reinforcements but they frightened it will be late, so they decided to enter in action, hoping in well. But it didn't went well, because the bombers were 7 and they only 2. It was easy for the criminals took and closed them in a storage room. Immediately after, they put on fire the building...

_**Now.**_

The smoke was all around them. They started to breath with difficulty. They knew exactly what it meant. It meant death.

Kat seat in one corner, knowing exactly was the worst thing to do, but she didn't matter.

"Don?" she asked as he joined and embraced her "are you mad at me? I know it's a stupid question, but, well, if it's the end, I want to know. Are you made at me?"

"You…you moved to L.A. and you didn't tell me… I don't know what to think. Or to feel."

"I can imagine. And I some way I can understand you. Don… - she paused - By the way…also if I admit I did avoid you… I didn't hate you."

"me too. Hate you ? is something impossible. For me." He gave her a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"We broke up. I mean… me and George. But you were still with.. Kim? I don't even remember her name."

"Well, I believed you were going to marry him, so I decide to go ahead."

"Never be able to do that. I mean… not only with you."

"Sorry?"

"I wasn't in love with George, but he was a quiet man. He was the right choice. Or so I believed. – she paused – the fact is… that my husband, Lucas, was an F.B.I. agent. He was fired during a case he was investigating on…"

"I didn't know. I'm sorry."

"George was a quiet type. He was the right kind of man for me. I didn't love him, but at least I liked him. But then… you entered in my life. And I fall in love with you."

"You were scared. You were scared from the possibility to lose me."

"Don… sorry if I didn't tell you I moved here."

"No problem. I'm here with you, now."

"Don?... if we will came out from here… would you try to date me?"

"sure I want. sure. you don't need to ask."

"You know Don, I think I'm still in love with you"

"You know Kat, me too. I think one day I'll marry you. Dad will be happy to have 2 nephews."

"I'm sorry for them. What if---"

He stopped her by kissing her passionately. It was like their first kiss, but this time she accepted it… and she returned.

_Don! Kat! Be quiet, we're here! We're here to save you! David shouted from the outside._


End file.
